Many public goods—such as education, public safety, and public health—are coproduced by citizens and communities, not simply provided by public agencies. Parents help school children read, neighborhood residents report... [ view full abstract ]
Many public goods—such as education, public safety, and public health—are coproduced by citizens and communities, not simply provided by public agencies. Parents help school children read, neighborhood residents report crimes to the police, and people engage in healthy (or unhealthy) behaviors that have profound effects on public health. While the potential benefit from coproduction varies with the nature of the particular public good or service (Ostrom 1996), citizens’ coproduction efforts, in many areas of government activity, are essential to the successful provision of public services. Previous research has shown that coproduction can enhance the quality and quantity of public services (Ostrom 1996; Bovaird 2007) and increase equity in public service provision (Jakobsen and Andersen 2013).
But what are the implications of coproduction for the citizens themselves? Levine and Fisher (1984) argue that, theoretically, coproduction arrangements that meet certain conditions can increase citizens’ trust in government, their sense of self-efficacy, and their concern for the common good. Bovaird (2007)’s case studies illustrate that coproduction increases citizens’ wider engagement in the community. More broadly, policy feedback theory (Campbell 2003; Schneider and Ingram 1997; Wichowsky & Moynihan 2008) suggests that policy design and delivery mechanisms influence how citizens define themselves and their role in society. This view is closely related to Cook’s (2014) argument that public administration plays a constitutive (formative) role in shaping citizenship and democratic society, and thus administrative arrangements—including coproduction—represent much more than just a functional means of implementing policy and providing public services; indeed, they help shape democrat society.
Based on this theoretical framework, we designed a set of survey experiments to test whether and to what extent citizens view coproduced public services or programs as more legitimate and effective than services produced and delivered solely by public agencies. Our experiment also aims to examine the effects of awareness of coproduction on broader attitudes toward government and democracy. Specifically, we developed three vignettes for common areas of coproduction: public safety, public health, and the environment. The treatment group of participants is assigned scenarios that mention coproduction, while the control group is assigned identical scenarios but with no mention of coproduction. For each vignette, we created specifically tailored questions that reflect the respondents’ attitudes toward the policy or program. We also assess their overall view of citizenship and their role in society. Data will be collected from an online panel of approximately 500 adults from across the US that is quite diverse in terms of region, age, income, socioeconomic status, and political ideology. The experiment is scheduled for the field in this fall, with results expected well in advance the IRSPM conference in April.
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F1a - Behavioral and Experimental Public Administration: Citizen-State Interactions
